I’ve been a bit remiss in reviewing a couple of my favorite acquisitions from the past couple of months. As always, these aren’t the looks I usually go around in—I do like my historically-tinged threads, as my previous review for AVid’s Marquis proves—but sometimes I do feel a need to step into the modern day. Shoes from Adam n Eve and clothes from Valiant are an excellent way to go about it, as I hope you’ll agree.
Skin: Jonathan t2 Goatee by Adam n Eve
Suit: Black Spring Military Suit by Valiant
Shoes: M111 OxBlood and M112 Slate by Adam n Eve
Poses: By LAP
This Black Spring Military Suit from Valiant is an excellent deal—I believe it was just L$400 when I picked it up. With open and closed jacket layers as shown, two types of cuffs, two types of pants (to go with or without the sculpted hem), and two shirts with white unknnoted bow tie and diamond tie, there’s a lot to play with here. It kind of makes me think that it’s something that the lead singer for the Killers might wear, and if he wouldn’t, well, his loss. Valiant is an excellent location to find trendy, casual male fashion from beachwear (quite a lot of nice board shorts) and underwear to a great variety of jeans, shirts, and suits like the one below.
A detail I particularly liked is the beautifully textured belt on the pants, which could pass for well-textured primwork if you didn’t know better. The way the skirt layer is used to create the jacket’s lower portion is also quite inspired, as it gives it a nice, natural look without needing sculpts or anything of that sort. If there’s any fault in it, I’d say it’ probably the seaming at the side of the pants, but it’s minute and that area is pretty difficult to deal with. perhaps incorporating the seam into a sideseam on the pants could have worked well to obscure it. Regardless, it’s a great look at an even greater price.
The latest pair of shoes for men from the mad cobbler, Damen Gorilla, are these beautiful casual shoes for men. Shown first is the newer of the two releases, the M112. Beautifully textured leather, dimpled all over the top and featuring stylish, elegant lines are hard to beat. The color selection of these shoes are more limited than, say, the M110 pepperpot brogues. All the colors, except Slate (which is a black) are beautifully toned variations—some more so than others—of brown, as this example in Cedar amply shows.
Next is the slightly older M111, a sportier casual loafer with a really elegant curving lines across the top. A bit shinier than the M112’s, there’s also a little more variety—and a fair bit more intensity—of color as you can see with the example in OxBlood shown here. As with all the recent sculpted shoes for men, these provide a straightforward resize script to squeeze it down a bit more (something I neglected to do on the M112’s actually). Also, for those who just hate invis prims, the M111’s don’t need them at all.
For price and quality, both of these stores are difficult to beat. Via Plurk, I’ve learned that Damen Gorilla is now on his way at designing a shoe for women, so something more for guys may be awhile… but given the stock he already has, it’d be a surfeit. As to Valiant, I’m not sure what Wavie Haller is cooking up next, but I can’t wait to see it.
